LinkedIn user trends 2014

May 21, 2014

In a recent article, Forbes addressed a number of current trends in LinkedIn usage specifically relating to LinkedIn users. Have a look at these trends below, along with statistics on the average LinkedIn user in the year 2014.

More connections: 43% of current profiles have more than 500 connections. This is a sharp increase from the 30% in 2013. A total of 18% of profiles now have more than 1,000 connections, which is double the figure of 2013.

We spend more time on LinkedIn: Last year, 48% of users spent more than 2 hours a week on LinkedIn. This percentage has increased to nearly 57%, and a total of 17% of users are on LinkedIn for more than 7 hours a week.

We do not know all the possibilities: 25% of users do not know that it is possible to hide their connections from others. There are still quite a few people that are not aware of all the possibilities on LinkedIn, and here at Digital Works, we have experienced that many LinkedIn users do not edit their settings. It is in your settings where you can edit who is “allowed” to see what. Do yourself a favor and check your privacy settings and make sure they are watertight.

We are in fewer than 50 groups: Only 16% are in the maximum-allowed groups (50). This can either indicate that many do not see the value in LinkedIn groups, or that we do not want to be in too many groups at once. Most are in 1-9 groups. LinkedIn has previously stated that the profiles that are active in groups have on average 4 times as many profile views than others.

We are curious: “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” is still the most used feature on LinkedIn – for 2 years in a row, with 76% of users voting it as their favourite function.

Company Pages are growing: The use of Company Pages is increasing, and the number has increased from 24% to 57%. However, according to the results shown in the following infographic, only 5% have yet tried to sponsor an update from a LinkedIn Company Page.